


There's a Place where you can Light the Fire and Watch it Burn

by Rainripple



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: M/M, Pokemon AU, Strangling, Trans Male Character, niles steals stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 00:17:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15852369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainripple/pseuds/Rainripple
Summary: The upper class citizens of Windmire cling to their possessions in fear of when Catwoman will eventually descend upon them. The poor are not so fearful and in their down time praise Catwoman for their life-saving donations. Neither know that 'Catwoman' is actually a disguise Niles, the owner of a pokemon sanctuary, created to throw law enforcement off his trail. Niles can't keep his identity a secret forever but whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to him.





	There's a Place where you can Light the Fire and Watch it Burn

**Author's Note:**

> The title is the first line from 'Drown in you' by Daughtry. It's a super cool song so please check it out!

Perhaps this was where Niles’ luck ran out…

000

Growing up as an impoverished child in Windmire’s slums, Niles had been forced to develop a proficiency in a wide range of skills and out of all of those, stealing was arguably his forte. He learnt fast – he had to - and it paid off. In his adult years at least, he’d yet to have been caught or even identified. Not that that had anything to do with Niles posing as a woman using a set of fake boobs and his lesser-known ability to imitate a female voice well. Or the black jumpsuit and the cat eared mask that obscured anything like the colour of his skin or his hair that might be used to figure out his identity.

He was not alone on these missions. Weavile had been Niles’ partner for many years and assisted him in anything and everything. Banette had will-o-wisp which was used to light the way in very dark areas if necessary. Abra strictly speaking was not a companion of his but it assisted well enough in teleporting stolen goods away. Should Niles be caught in the act, Froslass would freeze the paths of the pursuers, leaving him enough time to reach the roof where Honchkrow would be waiting to carry him to safety. Liepard was also brought along for extra support. The last member of his team, Absol, usually stayed behind to guard the pokemon sanctuary that they all called home. 

Unlike his childhood however, Niles did not gain his pseudonym a reputation for being a common thief but rather a Robin Hood style criminal. As he was no longer in extreme poverty, he could choose who and when he could steal and he turned his sights on the upper class. Niles’ resentment was deep-seated, festering as he’d watched them sin and abuse their power. He was only too glad to steal them of their belongings and use them for much more worthy causes like funding the sanctuary or making an anonymous donation to an organisation that did actually care about improving the lives of the poor.

More recently however, Niles had begun to make plans which would have a much bigger consequence, that being overthrowing King Garon’s reign. 

The main stronghold of the royal family of Nohr was an impressive castle from which nobody could successfully infiltrate and escape alive. Garon and his children had a penchant for cruelty and thieves were either killed on the spot or captured for painful public execution. Knowing this, Niles knew he would need a lot of preparation before he could hope to do anything. 

Niles was undoubtedly an intelligent man but given his bad start in life, he’d only just gotten access to supplies to teach himself on the basics like reading. A legal battle (if one against a monarch was even possible in this corrupt country) was likely out of the question at this present moment. Assassination was probably what he would have to do in the end but first he needed more information.

Garon’s second (living) son, Leo, lived in his own mansion somewhere on the outskirts of town, not close to the castle but also not close to the slums. Niles spent a week preparing for a test run at Leo’s place, scouting the outside of the house for possible entry and exit points and eavesdropping for possible events that could be happening.

On the night of a party that Leo was hosting, Niles made his move.

The party was occurring in the east wing of the mansion and Niles confirmed that Leo was indeed in the midst of it all before he made his way to the opposite end. With ease, Banette slipped through and opened the window from the inside. From there, Niles tiptoed his way around, peeking into rooms in search of anything of interest. He found cash sometimes when he probed around but he left them, concentrating on the more important mission.

Weavile alerted him to someone approaching around the corner. Quieting his breathing, he lurked in a shadow until the maid was close enough and then pounced, covering their mouth and knocking them out with a swift blow before they could even squeak. He carried them into a nearby room and locked them in a cupboard before continuing. 

After about 15 minutes, Niles finally located Leo’s study. Two sides of the room opposite to each other were covered by wall high bookshelves teeming with books of every topic while the other wall had large windows built into it. An oak desk stood towards the back. 

Niles began with picking the draws of the desk. He found some documents and a few letters from his sister Elise but neither were relevant. After that, he got Banette to set up a will-o-wisp as he examined the bookshelves. Perhaps there was something helpful hidden there or god forbid his imagination maybe a secret switch somewhere. Four books in particular stood out to him, appearing to be well used and not properly replaced. He placed Deuterium, Encyclopaedia of battle tactics, Southern independent nations and Kinetics on the table in a stack.

There was an audible click and then the floor from beneath Niles dropped. He managed to catch himself in time thanks to his reflexes and he pulled himself back to more stable ground. The hole in the ground was square in shape and seemed to extend down into darkness. Once Banette descended to investigate and returned to signal that it was safe, he released Froslass to imbed some footholds in the wall and close the gap above him once he began climbing down.

At the bottom, there was a tunnel. He and Weavile were on the alert for traps, listening and treading carefully. Nothing appeared to be amiss though and they reached the end safely. 

There was a new study at the end of the tunnel. Niles was sure he had to find something here but he could not shake the foreboding feeling that they were being watched. He wondered if perhaps it wasn’t by luck that he discovered this tunnel, that maybe those books were deliberately left exposed. There still didn’t seem to be anyone around but he sent Weavile and Froslass to double-check the area anyway. Being watched by a ghost pokemon was not out of the question.

The walls of this room were made of steel, resembling a bunker of some sort. The entrance to a vault was at the back, presumably to where the majority of Leo’s money was stored. There were a single filing cabinet to the left of the central desk and a display case with a sword made of never-melt ice to the right.

Extra layers of security were obvious given how the number of locks on the desk draws had increased from 1 to 5. It took a little longer than usual but even these couldn’t resist against Niles’ lockpicking skills. The first drawer he got to look into held only a single solitary journal. Upon closer inspection, it was a diary, beginning January of last year. At the start at least, the entries were more or less normal daily events though these were soon ignored in favour of darker matters. Garon apparently, was not adverse to abusing his own children. Elise was the most mentioned victim but surprisingly Leo was not exempt from this treatment either. Niles really got a good look into Leo’s character from these entries, learning anything from what subjects Leo had most interest in to his inferiority complex to his brother Xander to his growing doubts about his father’s sanity and choice of action. He certainly had a lot to reconsider when he reached the end.

Niles was debating on whether he could risk taking the whole book or just take some photos when Banette’s will-o-wisp went out and he was plunged into darkness.

“…Banette?”

After a few seconds, there was no answer and Niles cursed. There was something in the room and they needed to get out now. He reached for where Banette’s ball would be on his belt and grabbed a vine… a vine?

He realised too late what it was. Almost immediately it wrapped itself around his wrist and flung him against the wall with such force that the air was driven out of his lungs. It did not relent and it did not release its grip at all as it continued to slam him against the wall until he was winded and concussed. The side of his head felt slightly damp, like it was bleeding.

It was only when the lights turned on that Niles realised it was a Serperior. His head was swimming and he could just barely make out Leo, a Mismagius and a Garchomp and his own pokemon, fainted. The Serperior removed his belt and wrapped itself around him tightly, making it hard to even properly breathe never mind move in any sort of way. Niles’ belt was thrown towards Leo who returned Niles’ pokemon to their balls for him.

Leo then began to step towards him, his heels loud against the floor. “You’ve done well to make it this far, Catwoman, but I’m afraid it’s game over for you now. If you answer my questions, I may allow you a painless, private execution.” He came to a halt in front of Niles, looking down at him from where he was kneeling on the floor. Even as he struggled to breathe, Leo’s unwavering stare was uncomfortable.

There was an imposing tone to Leo’s voice as he began the questioning. “Why did you break into my house? What is your aim?”

Something about Leo’s demeanour demanded obedience but at this point at least Niles wasn’t going to roll over so easily. “Money of course,” he lied, continuing to pull off the feminine voice if only so the final unmasking was more amusing.

Leo narrowed his eyes. “Do you take me for a fool?

“What’s wrong with my answer?”

“If you really were just a petty thief, you would have taken the cash I left upstairs.”

Ah. So that _was_ deliberate then.

“Well, I was planning to loot your vault-”

He stopped as a Chandelure emerged from the wall and Leo held the pokeball with Froslass in close to it’s flames. “If you don’t answer truthfully I will not hesitate to slowly roast your pokemon in their balls.”

Niles was more than capable of being difficult but he was not so much of a jackass that he’d continue resisting at the cost of his companions’ wellbeing. “I was looking for information that might help me in assassinating your father.” Leo lifted an eyebrow. “Garon has been turning a blind eye to his people’s suffering for years, running this country down into the ground and it’s time it stopped. Does _that_ satisfy you?”

“…You seem sincere this time,” Leo said, nodding slowly. How he was able to tell that when the mask and goggles concealed his face entirely was a mystery. He continued, “Are you being hired by someone else?’

“No,” Niles snorted. He was long past the time when he had to accept any job available; he was his own man and he would answer to nobody else.

“Do you have any _human_ accomplices then?” Leo pressed.

“Also no.”

Leo hissed at him, “Liar. I heard a male voice down here before.”

He snapped his fingers, cueing Serperior to lift Niles off the ground slightly and squeeze him harder, forcing a small yell out of him. Leo of course noticed that something was off immediately. Motioning for Serperior to leave a gap to give him access to Niles’ chest, he gave one of the ‘boobs’ an experimental squeeze.

Niles let out a breathless chuckle. “A bit…crass…for you to grope someone.”

Leo ignored him and commented, “These are very obviously fake.”

Well. The game was up. From there, Leo only had to unzip the front of Niles’ suit and rip out the apparatus to confirm his suspicions. At least he was nice enough to zip it back up again.

“I must commend you on your voice-acting abilities, _Catman_.”

“Thanks,” Niles replied dryly. “Took you long enough.” Niles would be lying if he wasn’t a little bit glad that he could just talk normally now. Keeping the act up was getting difficult at this point.

Leo cleared his throat. “Now, will you tell me who you are or will I have to rip your mask off myself?”

Niles shrugged as best as he could. “You might as well take that off since you already started undress-” He was cut off by a slap to the face. (At least he’d succeeded in making Leo flustered.)

The unmasking was relatively unceremonious but it ended up removing a few other things that were in place to keep Niles’ hair restrained. His hair ended up flopping over his eyes as a result and he couldn’t quite shake it enough to see properly until Leo brushed it out of the way.

He stared into Niles’ eye for so long he was about to make a quip about how unnecessarily romantic it was but Leo got in before him. “You’re the one who runs that pokemon sanctuary just outside of Windmire aren’t you?”

“Aye, that’s right.” He was grinning for some reason and he wasn’t quite sure why.

“I see.” There was a threatening look in Leo’s eyes as one of Serperior’s vines wrapped itself snugly around Niles’ neck, enough that he could feel the pressure but not enough for it to start hurting. “Let’s say, you had a choice between you or your pokemon dying. Which would you choose?”

“Me, obviously.”

“Are you sure?”

“Hah. I’m offended. You’re making it sound like I’m really the sort of scumbag who would sacrifice his pokemon.”

A slow smile spread across Leo’s face and for the first time since he walked into the room Niles felt just that little bit afraid. “Shall we put that to the test?”

All the vines tightened at once and it really did hurt this time. It became a struggle to think about anything but the bruising pressure on his ribcage and his sudden inability to breathe. His limbs gave little involuntary jerks but they didn’t amount to anything. No amount of gasping could satisfy the increasing need for air.

“Well? How does that feel? You’re about to die but you can still be spared if you give your pokemon’s life in exchange.”

His vision was beginning to darken and he could feel the life draining out of him as the seconds dragged on but he managed to just about cough out a “No.”

Leo tutted, and then replied in a mocking tone, “Very well. Any last words?”

Niles took one last feeble attempt at breath to whisper, “Kill me. _Please_.” 

He didn’t mean to beg but being literally on the verge of death didn’t exactly put him in the right mind-set to properly think about what he was saying.

His eyes shut and for a moment, all was quiet. And then…

“Serperior that’s enough. Let him down-” Niles dropped to the ground with a painfully audible thump, only just about registering a sigh and an exasperated, “… _gently_ ” before he passed out.

000

There was an unrelenting, loud thudding noise.

Thanks to it, Niles was slowly, if not reluctantly, waking up even as he tried to cling to the last remnants of sleep. The bed felt somewhat more comfortable than usual but he wasn’t going to complain when his head and his neck hurt and his ribs felt like they were at least bruised if not broken. He was more than happy to stay in bed.

Eventually, the thudding noise increased in volume and Niles didn’t need to open his eyes to know it was Honchkrow. He shifted under the covers, burying his face in the pillow and mumbling something like “Let me sleep more.”

Honchkrow was not having it though. She let out a loud “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!” that surprised him enough to tumble out of bed, falling on his side hard and letting out his own little “fuck!”

There was definitely no going back to sleep now so he opened his eyes…and immediately did not recognise where he was. 

For starters, the bed he’d just fallen out of was a double instead of a single and upon closer inspection, appeared to be made of memory foam. The floor was carpeted, with an extra white rug beside the bed. It was similar to Leo’s study in respect to the wall high shelves though these ones had more empty spaces. There was also a desk beside the bed and a couple of chairs in the room.

He drew open the curtains and opened the windows to let Honchkrow in. Niles confirmed he was indeed still in Leo’s house just from identifying the tomato greenhouse in the garden but that only raised more questions.

There were a lot of things that did not add up: there were no physical restrainments like handcuffs on Niles that would prevent him from moving; he checked the windows and the doors and they were both unlocked; when he released his pokemon from their balls they were all fully healed (and more than capable of knocking Niles onto the bed to form cuddle pile); Niles had bandages around his head, presumably for a head wound he probably got last night; he was also wearing borrowed, slightly too small clothes instead of his own which were neatly folded up on one of the chairs.

Niles was in the middle of pondering this with Froslass latched onto his face when Leo himself showed up.

At once, all of his pokemon stopped what they were doing in favour of turning to hiss and make other threatening displays at the intruder. Most of them were probably drowned out though by Honchkrow’s loud “FUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUUU!!” which almost made Leo take a step back. His Serperior and Chansey in turn also prepared to attack in response, only backing down on Leo’s orders.

Leo cleared his throat. “Pardon the intrusion. I came to see how you were doing this morning.”

Niles snorted. “How I’m doing after being almost strangled to death?”

“…That’s something I need to apologise about.” At least he had the gall to look a little sheepish about it.

Leo invited himself in, closing the door – firmly – and taking a seat in one of the armchairs while Chansey set down the stapled booklets and rolled up pieces of paper on the table. Chansey also came over to give Niles a brief check under his bandages and his ribs. Niles really was tempted to comment on how Leo was undressing him again. He did actually, and that eye roll Leo did was exactly what he was expecting. The healing from Chansey did help relieve a little bit of the pain admittedly.

Leo shifted in his seat so he was comfortable but still maintaining an air of professionalism. “I apologise for the rough treatment last night. It’s time I explained that.”

“Oh you better do. I’ve been _dying_ to know why you randomly decided to spare me. Does making someone croak make you squeamish?” Niles teased.

“On the contrary, I was fully prepared to end your life if at any point last night you failed my tests.” His tone was deadly serious though Niles noticed he was somewhat more relaxed and less focused on trying to be intimidating.

Niles barked a laugh. “So was strangling me to death a test as well?”

“Indeed.” He made a dismissive hand gesture. “Enough dallying I’ll get to the point. You do recall what you read in my diary yes? And don’t lie I _know_ you read the whole thing.”

“Maybe. Be more specific,” Niles sneered.

Leo sighed but continued. “I believe you are aware of my grievances against my father. After my questioning last night I’ve been lead to believe that we share a common goal. I was hoping to propose a partnership.”

For a few seconds, Niles had to completely stop and comprehend what he had just heard before he started laughing (Weavile also sniggered along with him). “Amazing. The king’s own son is planning to commit treason against him! _That’s_ rich. Are your siblings like this too?”

“No, I’m the only one. Xander believes that his madness is only brief and he remains loyal to father hoping he’ll get better one day. Elise is too innocent to even think about killing a rabbit never mind her own father and Camilla…” Leo sighed. “Let’s not talk about her.”

“I can’t believe a royal is resorting to collaborating with a common thief.”

“You say that but your performance last night says otherwise,” Leo argued. “Your break in was clean and soundless; you left little to no traces of your presence around; you did not kill the maid I sent your way-”

“Wait that was deliberate? What if I’d killed her?”

“Mismagius would have shadow balled you if you tried to do that.”

Niles rolled his eyes. “Of course.”

“In addition, you lockpick at a record breaking rate and have excellent reflexes. You also seem to genuinely care for your pokemon and they clearly reciprocate. I take that as a good sign of your personality…barring the inappropriate comments.”

“This sounds like a very elaborate set up. It’s like you were waiting for me.”

“I was. ‘Catwoman’ was someone I’d had near the top of my potential ally list but of course I had to check what you were actually like. I don’t approve of hiring common lowlifes.”

A lot of the odd details Niles noticed last night were things he’d attributed to Leo though it appeared he had a lot more involvement than Niles initially realised. His thoroughness was commendable.

Niles shrugged. “Well you’ve got me. Are you going to threaten to kill me if I don’t enter this deal with you now?”

The incredulous look Leo gave him was delicious. “No!” Leo groaned and massaged his temples; Niles itched to irritate him further. “I try to give you this freedom to show my trust and explain my motives properly and _this_ is what you think of me?”

“Calm down I was only teasing.” Niles gave Liepard a little tickle behind the ears. He moved onto stroking its stomach when it rolled over and demanded it.

Leo did regain his composure in the end. He gestured towards the papers on the table. “So, I’ve brought along with me some material that may help us. Should we partner up I would gladly fund your sanctuary for free and cover bail charges if you get caught on a heist but if you need extra convincing…” 

Niles considered his options, thinking about everything that had happened in the past 12 hours or so and made a decision.

“You seem like an intelligent, half-way decent man. Working with you seems like it would be interesting.”

The way Leo perked up at that was a little cute, Niles had to admit. “Excellent. I don’t believe I caught your name..?”

“Ah yes, because you were too busy strangling me to death.” Niles smiled. “It’s Niles.”

“Niles.” Leo repeated. “It suits you.”

“You’re certainly good at flattering me aren’t you? You’re not just doing this because you have a crush on little old Niles do you?”

“No.” Leo insisted though the mild blush also did not do him any favours. He stood up to unroll one of the rolled up pieces of paper on the table. “Now, let me show you what I’ve got so far…”

000

…Or maybe not.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this for Day 1 of Niles' week but I'm actually super super late because i only decided to write it on the night the week started and this took longer than i expected it to. I felt there were already plenty of fics in the tag about their canon meeting so I decided to put an AU twist to it. Some details may be off because I got lazy in some parts since I was just desperate to get this over with. I have like, vague ideas of what might happen after this but no actual substantial plot points so whether this gets continued is debatable. I hope you like what I wrote regardless, please leave a comment! Thanks for reading, you can hit me up for more detail on twitter @LuckyRainripple :)


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